RPlog:The Republic Retreats
The battle had progressed quite a lot since the arrival of the Imperial fleet. The Griffon Fleet, having been trapped by the Imperial fleet under Grand Admiral Danik Kreldin, had lost a fair share of trips, including the flagship 'Gabriel,' although not in vein as the Imperials had hoped for. With Imperial guns trained on the cruiser carrying the Republic senator and other high ranking Republic officials, the 'Gabriel' threw herself in the line of fire and sacrificed itself to save the cruiser. The Mako-class cruiser, its sacrifice complete as the cruiser and other civilian transports jumped to hyperspace, broke apart and was destroyed. With the Griffon fleet out of the way, the Imperials turned their attention on the recently arrived Republic fleet, and the battle intensified. The situation on the ground was more or less the same; Imperial troops deployed and quickly secured a beachhead at one of the starports. With close air and armor support the Imperials were holding their position, fighting back against a Republic counter-attack. For Grand Admiral Kreldin, more or less stuck to his medical bed, the situation was pleasing. Victory was more or less in his grasp, but the Republic fleet could still turn the tide. The Imperial second group, which was taking the brunt of the Republic attack, was starting to buckle, and Kreldin had no choice but to halt his utter destruction of the Griffon to reinforce the Imperial second group against the Republic wave. The battle was far from over. CS-4073 poses: The Republic fleet continued it's assualt on the second Imperial battlegroup as, from the flagship, it's admiral watched the battle unfold on the sensor screen. He turned to glance at his flag captain beside him as he gestured at a specific area of the chart. "Concentrate all fire on these ships; they seem to be the most heavily damaged. One those are destroyed we'll attack them from the rear. Issue the orders, captain. We can't waste time.)) Still engaged in starfighter combat, Krieg brings his bomber about. The shields are weakened, but not overly depleted at this point. With the new arrival of the Reprisal not too long ago, Krieg had recieved orders to attack that and ignore fighters, letting the Imperial fighters to pick up the slack. He does the flying, and tells Blitz, "Hey man, coordinate our attack with the other bombers, I know you probably have us locked up by now." The flight path that he needs to take rolls them in on the captial ship, but there is limited movement on his part from their course. Blitz on the other hand calls up nearby bombers, "Fomation Zeta Zeta, blink knox two, lock enroute." The data streams flow from the bomber to coordinate the targetting and attacks. When they get tone, Blitz pulls the triggers to release their missiles on the enemy captial ship. "Missiles free, missiles free!" SF-8408 poses: Tellain grunts as laser fire continue to spray on his ship. "Ergh, that's it. Let's just get our job done." Tellain swings the Second Darksword around, ignoring the Manta that may or may not have gotten off his case by now. He swings around and attempts to lock onto the Reprisal. "Missiles away." And off a missile goes.)) Having been recalled for fuel in her fighter, Jal'Dana breaks from her encounter and scream back to the Dauntless. The landing is hard, and she is in a hurr to take on fuel and get back into the fight. As she lands, the deck officer radios that the ship took some damage in the fire fight and the refueling controls are jammed. "Just my fragging luck" she says as she unbuckles her belt and climbs out of her TIE, jumping down to the deck, she breaks off in a sprint to the staging area. Sweat starts to soak her fight suit, and the bulky life support equipment was never meant to be ran in. As she reaches the area where freash fighters await pilots Jal'Dana climbs up into a back up fighter War Shrike 8 and starts turning the switches to ready herself and the ship. Hooking up to life support, the roar of the Twin Ion engines is a welcome sound. Waiting for the launch clearance is taking forever, it will be just minutes before she re-enters the fight, but for Jal'Dana it feels like hours. SF-8106 poses: Gene on Ghost 5 had taken a hit on the Inquisitor, but now, with all his banking, he is well out of range. Grumbling he checks his scanner for the closest enemy ship. Only one within range, and that one happens to be firing at the Reprisal. He takes careful aim, waiting for the claxon to go off, announcing that his target is locked. "This is it, let's see what this Impy is made of." he tells the droid, or the cockpit at least. His hand squeezes the trigger, setting off a few laser blasts at the imposing Imperial. Little does he know, who is actually piloting that ship. "Thake that!" as the area peppers with laser blasts around Zeta 3)) Kreldin's eyes are glued to the tactical display screen. The 'Malevolence,' his commandship, was on route to beef up second group's defenses, with her escorts and picket line in tow. The battle was slightly thrown off course because of the Republic fleet's arrival; just a minor nuisance, Kreldin figures. He would crush them, as he did the Griffons. Second group, led by the 'Malignant,' pulls back and swings around to form up with the recently arriving first group, spearheaded by the 'Malevolence,' the mighty dreadnought, and together they start to rip into the Republic formation, turbolaser bolts of red and green exchanging back and forth as the two fleets merge upon each other. There was no real sense of formation or line anymore; it had been abandoned a short while ago, and the Imperials were now relying upon their heavier firepower to see them through this. It was a brawl, practically, Kreldin deciding against any fancy tactics or line exchanges. There was no point to it now. As the first and second Imperial groups merge together to engage in the vicious melee that was commencing, group three continues its efforts in mopping up the remnants of the Griffon fleet, more or less ignoring traffic coming from the planet unless it was marked as a priority vessel, such as any government or military ships. The civilians, however, were given free reign to engage their hyperdrives as soon as they escaped the Imperial interdiction field and escape. Kreldin was not interested in killing fleeing civilians. Waste of energy and time. Military targets first. CS-4073 poses: The Captain of the Repraisal seems to be taking this in stride. Keeping the ship on course he waits until the claxons proclaim there is an enemy in range, and returns fire. With orders given to the other guns to keep firing as well, when an enemy ship is in range. "We are going to take them down, whatever it takes folks." Though at this point, anything is possible.)) Pulling out of the first run, Krieg rolls his fighter away from the craft, and then takes it on a tight snap turn once a distance away to come back for another run. This time the run is started with such a distance that he'll be able to get two shots off instead of one. Another rebel fighter rolls in on him from behind on Krieg's rollout, but Krieg is able to make that last second turn to clear away from the fire. On the other hand, Blitz keeps coordinating some bomber runs, in attempts to get them on the same page. Krieg calls up after the fighter run, urgently saying, "Zeta 3, requesting assistance. We have fighters engageing our craft while on bombing runs." Blitz dials in a few new coordinates and prepares the ship for a beating on this next run, as the missiles they need to fire off are important in this battle for the Empire to win. Blitz says to Krieg, "We should be able to hold them off for this run, systems are blue and holding." Krieg responds, "Good, keep us in the fight." He's concentrated on this attack run in attempts to manuever the craft in small movements to avoid laser fire but at the same time keep their lock to fire their missiles on the enemy target. SF-8408 poses: Tellain smiles as the missile hits. "Now that's better." Barring the occasional laser hit, the Darksword 2 is mostly unscathed. Ignoring the multiple warning lights in his ship, Tellain carts the bomber around and stares at the Reprisal. He's almost sad that the NR fighters aren't attacking him. "Hey." Says his co-pilot. "You ever wonder what the New Replublic, you know, is?" Tellain pauses. "Huh?" The co-pilot begins to work with the missile launches in the meantime. "Yeah. Like, why is it there? Where did it come from? Where is it going? Will it survive the tests of time, like the Old Republic certainly did?" Tellain sighs. "Hey, no deep thinking in combat." A missile streaks out from the Scimitar, going again for the Reprisal.)) SF-6475 poses: His last shots went way wide but his target is still the same, He has too shoot this one down. He takes aim at the imp and then presses the trigger. The laser take off and it seems good. Come on. Hase sweats in anticipation and grins.)) Danik was through playing games with the rebel scum. He vanquished the Griffons, now time to vanquish the rebels. Two birds with one stone. Now to play his trump card. "Ensign Rico, send a tightbeam transmission to the Predator; tell Captain Cogy it's time. The rebel fleet has shown, and we're engaged in combat at coordinates 344 146 -55. Tell them to form up to allow them to get the jump on the rebels. Mark CS-4073 as a priority target." And so the Imperials sent the transmission to their second fleet, just a few lightyears away where Pride-1 -used- to be. It was only a matter time now before the rug was pulled from the rebels feet, and the Imperial second fleet arrived in full strength to crush the rebels for good. Cochran was going to be their cemetary, and Kreldin was going to make sure of it. The two fleets continue to engage each other, as bombers sweep in and unleash their missiles on the Reprisal and other Republic capital ships. On the bridge of the 'Inquisitor' Captain Richardson was standing by the view port, watching as the wedge-shaped form of his precious Star Destroyer advances upon the 'Reprisal,' green turbolasers and blue ion cannon blasts firing out at the enemy Victory-class Star Destroyer. Richardson was depressed to see one of the Empire's Victory Star Destroyers in the hands of the rebels, giving him all the more resolve to see it destroyed. His orders were simple: "Destroy the Reprisal." The green light is given, and with a final salute to the deck officer, War Shrike 8 is off and away. She knows her mission and that is to rejoin the fighter screen for the Bombers and Capital ships. As she punches up a few codes on the HUD, she marks the location of the picket line, and rejoins the hunt. "Now where are those pesky little X-wings?" Jal'Dana voices to herself. Finding the rebel transponders on the combat display, she rolls her TIE into a dive. Shifting in the shock couch, she presses forward on the throttle forcing the dagger like ship she flies to race back into the battle. TIE Interceptors were made for this role, increscent the enemy fighters quickly, split the formations and force chaos in the ranks. Breaking through a section of Y-Wings, she picks off a wounded bird, trying to make it back to the protection of the Rebel Flag ship; behind her it explodes in a quick pocket of flaming gasses. Already forgotten War Shrike 8 moves towards the X-wings Surrounding Zeta 3. "30 seconds, and I'm in there Zeta, just hold tight..You're doing fine." CS-4073 poses: The Captain of the Repraisal is getting a bit annoyed, "Keep firing, we are not going to lose this one too dammit." Again taking aim on the Inquisitor once more he squeezes off another few rounds at the offending ship.)) Taking the hits in strike, Krieg takes his fighter on a final run where he can fire the second salvo of missiles. However, this time around their efforts are not in vain for targetting, as the shields fall in the midst of their targetting. Their gamble may pay off after all... With their next round targetting the bridge, the hits taken give Krieg and Blitz extra time to especially make sure the Reprisal's bridge gets hit with their full power of missiles. Blitz calls out the countdown, "Keep on course, no movement. Bridge is locked, ready to fire. 3... 2... 1... Missiles away!" With that the button is pressed and the salvo is fired directly at the bridge. Krieg risks taking damage from the blast of their detonation as the whol ship shudders with the shockwave. The ship also is taking a beating, the armor withstanding the blasts currently. Krieg flies right through the outskirts of the blast, dangerously close to the bridge of the reprisal as he then snap rolls out of it at full speed yelling, "woohoo!" Though their shields are down, the hull armor holds up and he moves to evade fire from the fighters nobody seems to be picking up. Over the radio he hears War Shrike 8 respond to his call, liking that support is finally headed his way. SF-4025 Ghost 2 finds the ship she fired upon is aiming bombs at the....bridge? Uhm...yeah. whoever this joker is has either a death wish or cajones of steel. either way, for that....she's gonna turn this joker into swiss cheese or go down trying. SF-8408 poses: Tellain's co-pilot continues the barrage of thoughts. "And what happened to those robots decades ago? Where are they? Do you think they have introspective thoughts now and again?" Tellain resists the urge to smack him, turning the ship again to align himself for another round. Smiling, Tellain lets loose with another missile at the Reprisal. "And what is with the Kuatians?" Tellain sighs. "You know, better question. Why is that ship named 'Reprisal'? That sounds too 'negative' for the Newbies' usual tastes." The co pilot shrugs.)) SF-6475 poses: Hase see's that the damn imp is bombing the Reprisal an is quite upset. He keeps on the one he has been shooting at and see's also that Ghost 2 has the same idea. He takes aim once again and this time he will down it or at least try. He presses the trigger and lets loose.)) VSD Malignant Quietly taking the helm, Captain Caiton issues a calmly spoken series of commands that has the ship turning carefully, rolling to a precise angle and moving closer to rejoin the actual combat pattern. With its shields down, the Malignant relies now on the significant hull strength to keep the ship - and her personnel - intact and not gasping for air. Which, all told, would be a very bad thing. Captain Caiton keys up the tactical display before highlighting the main target and, on a whim, adjusting the display to have the Reprisal highlighted in a glowing Magenta color. "Target the terrorist flag ship again," she says simply, "Aim small, miss small," she advises, "pick your shots with care, gentlemen." At her signal the Malignant opens fire once more, the deckplating rumbling softly underfoot with the repercussion. (Lynae@Malignant) Going on the philosophy that its better to be late than never, Akor launches with his copilot, Avenger. All lights are in the green. Throwing the throttles to full power, Akor tries to squeeze every ounce of speed out of his fighter that he possibly can. "Lead, 3. I'm on my way." Orders were received and the Imperial fleet complied. In just a few seconds after receiving Kreldin's message, the second Imperial armada arrived from hyperspace, spearheaded by its flagship, the HIMS 'Predator.' The fleet accelerated at full battle system and all systems were immediately placed on battle readiness; shields were activated, weapons systems began activating, and this second fleet began its move upon the rebel fleet, already engaged with the first Imperial fleet. More Interdictor-class cruisers were composed in this new fleet, which began drifting away from the main fleet to supplement the Interdictors already in place; the Imperials were determined -not- to let any rebel leave this system alive. "Sir, Admiral Talkor's fleet has just arrived; they'll be within firing range in two minutes." Kreldin smiles as he hears the news, and sees the arrival of the second Imperial fleet on his display screen. "Today will be a day long remembered. We have seen the end of the Griffons, and we will soon see the end of the main Republic fleet. Good job, everyone." CS-4073 poses: The Captain of the Reprisal calls over the com, "The ships taking a lot of damage, pull out, all craft retreat." The shilds are down so the pilots can board, and maybe they can get the heck out of there, quickly enough.)) < It looks like Krieg has stirred up the hornet's nest, and he needs to roll out of the way. The fire from the explosion at the bridge masks some of the blast and the danger of his craft getting hit. He sees two fighters diving in on him, and he rolls toward them both, blazing past them and their fire. He laughs to Blitz, "Hey man, looks like we got their attention!" Blitz retorts, "Yeah man, kick the fires and keep us alive!" Responding in kind to that Krieg presses forward with the engines, snap rolling the bomber around to view the Reprisal again, lock it up and prepare to fire. With the Imperial fleet bearing down upon it, Krieg's next decision is to either continue fire upon the VSD, or engage the fighter escort to buy some other craft some more time. Blitz in the meantime has several targets locked up, ready to do what they decide upon is their best course of action. With the capital ship out of the way mostly, he targets the nearest rebel fighter, seeks lock, and fires. SF-4025 Ghost 2, hearing the order she's been expecting for a while now, banks and rolls away from the ship she's been pursuing...and makes her way away from the battle at her best speed. Crystal, pushes a couple buttons and makes her way away from the battle completely, even away from the Reprisal, not expecting the ship to last much longer. The shots from the TIE went wide, just as she expected but she need to close that gap, the X-wing turned away and didn't challenge her like she had hoped. War Shrike 8 moves in on the aft of Ghost 3, and lines up the shot. The rebel pilot is moving well, and the ship keeps slipping in and out of the gun sights. The must have issued an oder to pull back, they way they are running. Still they focus on the slower bombers, "Zeta 3 break hard left..now!" she radios to the other pilot. As her TIE moves in, she gets close enough for a positive lock, and pulls tightly on the trigger. As red laser blasts dance around War Shrike 8, green fire erupts from the wing tips of the little fighter, giving the Imperial dagger an unholy glow for a few. Republic Retreats, The